The present invention relates to a hermetically circulating, absorption type refrigerator, and more particularly to an absorption type refrigerator with a reactor for efficiently converting a hydrogen gas generated in the refrigerator to water.
Generally, a hermetically circulating, absorption-type refrigerator uses water as a refrigerant and an aqueous concentrated lithium bromide solution as absorbent. In the absorption-type refrigerator, the section having the highest temperature in the refrigeration cycle is a high temperature regenerator for concentrating the absorbent, and in the case of a double effect regenerator the maximum temperature reaches about 160.degree. C., where the lithium bromide concentration of the absorbent is as high as about 65%. In other words, the corrosive aqueous lithium bromide solution is at the highest concentration and highest temperature and its corrosiveness is much intensified. To prevent the corrosion of materials of construction for the refrigerator, an inhibitor is usually added to the absorbent (U.S. Pat. No. 3,555,841). To this end, various inhibitors have been proposed, but have merits and demerits as the same time and fail to completely prevent the corrosion. As a result, a hydrogen gas generated by corrosion of carbon steel, major material of construction for refrigerator, is likely to accumulate in the refrigerator. However, since an absorption-type refrigerator is in an entirely hermetic structure, and works under a subatmospheric pressure of a few to a few tens of mmHg within the refrigerator, the inside pressure increases due to the generated hydrogen gas, thereby lowering the refrigeration effect. Heretofore, an operator of the refrigerator is obliged to periodically discharge the accumulated hydrogen gas to the outside of the refrigerator by an exhausting pump such as a vacuum pump. It is the recent trend that the size of absorption-type refrigerators is made smaller, and maintenance-free automatic operation is a commercially great merit for such small refrigerators, but removal of hydrogen gas generated in the refrigerators is a serious problem.
The conventional absorption-type refrigerator has an evacuation tank for storing non-condensible gases and a vacuum pump, but no refrigerators with an apparatus for converting the hydrogen gas to water to automatically maintain the inside pressure constant has not been proposed yet.